KARACHI, May 26: North Karachi residents were hugely inconvenienced on Wednesday as their locality experienced the greatest number of power breakdowns.

A spokesman for the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation argued that feeders supplying electricity to North Karachi were switched off on a rotation basis when transformers of the North Karachi grid station heated up.

He added that 85 per cent of the 102 KESC transformers in the city were overloaded and needed to be replaced. A resident of North Karachi, Sector 7D-2, said the power breakdowns, which started on Tuesday, continued throughout Wednesday.

He said: "We lost electrical supply to our locality many times. The first power breakdown occurred at around 10pm. The power supply was restored at 1.30am. After two hours, another hour-long power breakdown occurred in the locality.

As sleep returned to our weary eyes in the early hours of Wednesday, another breakdown occurred at around 6.45am which continued till 9.45am. Later in the day, our locality remained without electricity from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. Why should we pay full bills to the KESC when it cannot provide uninterrupted electricity to us?" he said.

Another resident of North Karachi, Sector 11-A, said his locality remained without electricity for more than four hours - from 2pm to around 6pm. "When I called the regional complaint centre, they said they had switched off electricity to our locality because a lot of it is pilfered in North Karachi.

The telephone attendant at the complaint centre added that electricity to those areas where power theft is rampant is switched off during the peak hours. I take exception to this attitude on the part of the KESC because a large number of people in our locality do not pilfer electricity and pay bills on time.

Why should they suffer for the sins of those who indulge in power theft?," he said. The KESC spokesman said a 40MVA transformer on the Federal B Area grid station heated up and broke down on Wednesday. He added that the transformer supplied electricity to feeders in Sohrab Goth and some areas of Federal B Area.

KESC consumers near Bara Board and Pak Colony took to the streets in protest against prolonged power breakdowns. They pelted passing vehicles with stones and held up placards inscribed with anti-KESC slogans. Traffic remained suspended for four hours.